Higher salaries, but higher unemployment: NSO finds Hyderabad lagging on jobs
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Hyderabad: Despite being one of India’s better-paying and more productive urban labour markets, Hyderabad faces higher-than-average unemployment and significant youth disengagement, the National Statistics Office’s (NSO) first city-level labour market report for 46 million-plus cities has found.
The NSO put Hyderabad’s unemployment rate at 6.8 percent, above the million-plus city average of 4.9 percent and higher than peer metros such as Bengaluru (2.8%), Surat (1%), Howrah (0.8%) and Rajkot (0.3%). At the national high end, Patna recorded 20.9% unemployment, followed by Prayagraj (15.8%) and Dhanbad (15%). Female unemployment in Hyderabad was notably higher at 9.1%.
Youth disengagement is a concern: about 25.1% of Hyderabad residents aged 15–29 were not in employment, education or training (NEET), matching the urban average of 25%. The NEET rate was far higher among young women (37.3%) than young men (12.6%). Cities such as Coimbatore (8.2%) and Navi Mumbai (8.4%) reported some of the lowest youth NEET rates, while Dhanbad (36.7%) and Amritsar (35.8%) had some of the highest.
Hyderabad’s labour force participation rate stood at 55.5%, above the million-plus city average of 52.4% but below leaders like Surat (66.7%). Female labour force participation in the city lagged behind places such as Coimbatore (41.3%) and remained well above low-participation cities like Prayagraj (9.3%).
The city remains a strong market for salaried work and wages. Some 62.1% of Hyderabad workers held regular wage or salaried jobs, higher than the million-plus city average of 58.5% (Bengaluru led with 67.4%). Regular salaried employees in Hyderabad earned an average of Rs 31,153 per month, above the million-plus average of Rs 28,808 but below Bengaluru (Rs 34,323) and far short of Navi Mumbai (Rs 51,515). Self-employed workers earned an average monthly Rs 30,075, while casual workers’ mean daily wage was Rs 784.
Hyderabad also ranked among the most productive urban economies in the survey, with Gross Value Added per worker at Rs 2,76,700 — second only to Pimpri-Chinchwad (Rs 2,90,268) and ahead of Delhi (Rs 2,65,541). Gwalior recorded the lowest GVA per worker at Rs 98,273.
The NSO’s findings are drawn from a PLFS survey of 1,128 households in Greater Hyderabad, covering 1,657 men and 1,662 women aged 15 and above, conducted in 2025.